What’s up with Newsweek’s “royal correspondent” Jack Royston? At times, it definitely feels like he’s deranger-adjacent, but he also publishes quotes in defense of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. I think he’s probably on the Sussex-communications office’s email list. Well, for months now, Royston has been trying to track the numbers around Duchess Meghan’s As Ever, her startup which is about one year old. As Ever has been a huge success by any metric, and it appears as if Meghan has quickly figured out her inventory issues and supply chains. Which is great, because in As Ever’s first months, Meghan was selling out of everything within minutes. Her limited-edition products still sell out quickly, like those chocolate bars. Well, Royston’s latest “analysis” for As Ever is that the company is doing badly because… Meghan has inventory. And As Ever’s website still gets hundreds of thousands of visitors every month. Scandal!
Meghan Markle has had just under 400,000 U.S. visitors to her As Ever website since January, when a website flaw appeared to reveal inventory levels of more than 650,000 units.
The Duchess of Sussex launched the business in 2025, cross promoting with her Netflix series With Love, Meghan, which has not been renewed for a new season. No sales data has been published, while supporters say her products are selling strongly and critics arguing they remaining unsold.
A person with knowledge of As Ever, told Newsweek they anticipated it would “double in size this year. By any measure, for any startup, you can’t deny that is anything but a success. People are obsessed with wanting her to fail.
“The commentariat are clouded by their own prejudice and a need to perpetuate a narrative that her business is a failure, because they pegged her that way from the start and they can’t take being wrong.”
Newsweek has used data from digital intelligence platform Similarweb to estimate Meghan’s potential customer base, comparing it with known inventory figures to assess the relationship between supply and demand. The issue is particularly significant because Meghan and Harry have been under pressure since the start of 2023 to demonstrate their relevance to U.S. audiences since two major projects, their Netflix biopic Harry & Meghan and the prince’s book Spare, led to a crash in their popularity among Americans.
I’m not being facetious: this guy wrote a story about how 400,000 is a smaller number than 650,000. He’s literally arguing that As Ever is in trouble because Meghan has more products in stock than she has monthly visitors to As Ever’s site. Throughout this whole decade-long Sussex situation, I’ve come to understand that reporters on the royal beat really have no concept of money, they don’t know the first thing about business, and they prefer to keep royal gossip a logic-free zone. These are the same people who downright insist that Meghan and Harry are broke because their $100 million Netflix contract was completed in five years. This is another entry into the Deranger Math book – how can As Ever be successful if Meghan maintains As Ever’s product inventory???
Photos courtesy of As Ever’s Instagram.
If she had nothing in stock, they’d say she was shutting down the business. Nothing she does will ever satisfy them or get them to stop writing this shit. Good thing she doesn’t care.
@Kaiser any ID or shopping link for that cute mini dress she’s wearing in the photo? Just in case.
“Meghan and Harry have been under pressure since the start of 2023 to demonstrate their relevance to U.S. audiences since two major projects, their Netflix biopic Harry & Meghan and the prince’s book Spare, led to a crash in their popularity among Americans.“
— What?!?
These are things that ONLY the bitter British media are thinking of. They are obsessed with thinking the Sussexes need to prove something and telling their audience this so when the Sussexes fail to do whatever they claim the goal is they are failures
I sometimes wonder if “The Firm” & Gutter Press have ever recognized that their Meghan- Outrage-Machine’s endless howling has actually boosted this robust bedrock of support for Meghan & her numerous projects! The Sussex Squad is certainly awe-inspiring, a sight to behold! And given that, her commercial ventures have gained free worldwide publicity, LOL! No wonder As Ever is flourishing :)))
It’s highly amusing how Royston has pivoted from the calculations of jam sales hitting $20+ million to a reduction in monthly website visitors indicating As Ever failing.
“A person with knowledge of As Ever”
That’s so vague, everyone here has knowledge of As Ever.
See, they are so fixated with presenting the gloomiest picture possible that I don’t even know if there has been a reduction in visitor traffic to the As Ever website. He says that there have been 400,000 U.S. visitors. I know that they don’t ship out of the country yet but, if you’re just counting visitors, then why not count ALL visitors? Is it just so that he can present the story as a “drop in visits” to the site?
And really since when does living in a country and raising your kids there mean that you must “prove your relevance to a U.S. audience”? This is Meghan and her family’s country, they have nothing to prove, Newsweek. The ones who must prove their relevance are the left-behinds who are still living off of English taxpayers.
Watching her succeed makes my heart soar. Good guys winning are in short supply lately.
Meghan will be even more successful once she ships to Canada. All my friends and I are eagerly awaiting the opportunity to buy it all. I’m sure that’s true of other countries as well.
I can’t wait till we Canadians can order. I want to try the jams
Waiting for Europe here…
Royal reporters struggling to cover Meghan outside the royal fold is a testament to how stupid royal reporting is. They know nothing about business, producing, philanthropy or branding. They just know gossip and repeating the narratives they are given over the royal family group chat.
Honestly, I don’t think they’re actually this stupid. They just think their readers are.
@B and @Tuesday you two just made me remember this hilarious comedy skit making fun of royal reporters after Prince Harry had a foot injury. So good.
https://youtu.be/Do_7wb_dQwM?si=5bj2EJir8cOyrmvd
Thank you for making my day 😂😂😂😂😂😂
Not one, but two restraining orders.
@NOT A SUBJECT, you’re a 🌟. That was hilarious. 😂😂😂
I visit her site several times monthly, and am a regular customer. These people are nuts. But beyond that: BEING. BACK. THE. APRICOT. SPREAD.
Same, I visit and purchase from this site monthly. Love the products packaging and how quickly you get your purchases.
Same, I check her website frequently. i’m well stocked at the moment so haven’t ordered in a while but I might order some of her rose for the summer. I have also decided that I need her sparkling wine for when “it” happens (you all know what I mean.)
I’m also obsessed with her sage honey and that’s currently what I go through the fastest so may get another order of that soon.
But also because I keep checking I dont panic buy because I see that her inventory has stabilized and I can get that honey or raspberry jam whenever I want.
no one is accusing Williams Sonoma of being a failure because they always have All Clad in stock. (or – gasp! – le Creuset!)
Have you sent them a note asking them to bring the apricot spread back? Because I think that if more and more visitors to the site does this, they’ll be more likely to bring that drop forward, even though it’s seasonal.
Words cannot describe how much I loathe Jack Royston. He literally only discusses H&M and everything they do to criticize the smallest things. He is literally obsessed with seeing them ‘failing’ and is obsessed with their popularity polling whether in the UK or the US.
I’ve never seen ppl so obsessed with popularity polling. Their polling on these silly polls fed to a tiny group of people matters little considering they are NOT working royals. The polling in the US is also so useless because almost any high profile person here has a large amount of people who don’t like them. It doesn’t matter because the people that DO support them are who their main audience is. Meghan doesn’t need to be universally liked in the US to make a success of As Ever and be able to fund their life.
He also seems to think Harry hates the US because he speaks more about the UK more and gives statements on events. He thinks it means Harry wants to return. He is delusional.
You will never see him delve deep into William or Kate’s foundation. The metrics of Earthshot and the actual impact of the work they claim to be doing. Nothing about the King’s Trust work or stats in these things. It’s all about proving H&M are failing somehow.
Pebbles, I share your feeligs.
I lost any respect for Jack Royston as a journalist long time ago.
He caters for his readership mostly derangers. Most of his articles are about Harry and Meghan, mostly negative, and there is where he gets the most engagements by his readers. There are hardly any comments under articles covering other royal family membets. Quite often Jack Royston bases his articles on social media posts or social media “analysis”.
He was not bothered to cover Kate’s trip to Northern-Italy in a stand alone article but he had an “analysis” piece comparing Meghan’s vist to Switzerlandq an Kate’s visit based on the likes clips of each event got on TikTok. I am not joking. Jake Royston has not coveted Peter and Harriett’s wedding yet.
However Jake Royston is a joke of a journalist.
It literally doesn’t make any sense, because by his metric if out of those 400,000, only 200,000 bought something, and all of them only spent $50, that would still be 10 million dollars. Just like for some reason we are supposed to believe they have spent 100 million plus in six years. On what who knows.
I think they are obsessed with the idea of them being broke because financial control is the only thing they have left. Harry and Meghan aren’t coming back to help launder the messiness of the British royal family, and provide more interest and clicks for the British media unless they were dead broke ( in the minds of the BM, I don’t think they would even then).
They need that narrative out there so that people believe it when they say that they’re desperate to come to the UK, and to reconcile with the family. Because otherwise you just have two people that are earning their own money, not running back to attend every Royal/ royal adjacent event, and are doing just fine.
That’s why what makes what he says so asinine because that’s just one possibility that makes his argument invalid. He doesn’t even factor in that people who make purchases are likely to purchase more than just one item, which is an even bigger profit for As Ever. The truth is that none of them have any access to the Sussexes so they make up stories to fill pages with. There are no sources for their marriage, children, finances, future plans or how they feel. It’s all just a bunch of made up lies.
Most people are going to order in bulk to minimize shipping costs so yeah.
The Sussexes being broke would also prove what the tabloids have been insisting is fact – that people don’t respond to them, people dont want to buy their products, or watch their shows, etc.
The Sussexes are signing deals and making money because people are interested in what they are doing. And I think at this point its way beyond the royal family. No, Harry and Meghan the docuseries would not have been such a success if it was all about their happy life in Montecito and they didn’t mention the royals once. But that was almost 4 years ago. I think for a lot of people (speaking for myself) the ship has sailed in terms of “wanting to know more about what happened in England.” I listen to their interviews and speeches for them, not for any details they may let slip. And Meghan especially has made it crystal clear that she’s not talking about them anymore.
So even then the press cant insist their popularity is only bc they’re bashing the royal family. It clearly goes way beyond that.
The only time royston publish something positive about the Sussex is because the positive is proven and can’t be denied. The commenters on his articles are always the same and mostly haters, borderline idiots. Some also use different names.
Royston is not an expert on marketing and managing a company; he is a royal reporter who it seem, given his mostly negative articles against Meghan, aim to work the for the toxic uk press one day.
Those gutter rats know Meghan’s As ever is a massive success, they just refuse to report such. If they want to live in denial so be it, as long as the Sussexes are successful is all this supporter cares about. The haters are going to hate and the losers are going to continue losing if they bet against the Sussexes.
This is dumb. I still remember the royal reporters saying that the docuseries was a flop after the first day of streaming and that Spare was a flop because there were no people lining up at Waterstones to buy the book. These people exist in the same bubble as the Royal Family.
Jack Royston does not have genuine takes and hasn’t for a very very long time.
So As Ever was a flop because they kept selling out their inventory. And now they’re a flop because they have inventory. Make it make sense.
This guy is sickly obsessed with Meghan’s numbers and downfall – especially by declaring her, “unpopular in the US and the UK, nearly broke and a business failure”, every other month, with stretched/incomparable /constructed figures.
I put Royston (Newsweek) in the same category as Tom Sikes (DailyBeast/Substack), Richard Eden (the Fail) and Cameron Walker (GBNews: online and TV shows) . Simon Perry at People Mag is questionably too, but not as obsessed as these four UK based psychos.
What I genuinely don’t understand, is the fact that H&M Comms man in the UK, Liam Maguire, is still providing Sykes, Walker and Royston quotes and exclusives, despite these men’s obsession and daily attacks on Meghan’s character, and their constant hateful reporting about her, (which he clearly is aware of, as he is UK based), even in the pieces they write with the information that he provides them, and in their stupid podcasts, hit TV shows and commentary.
My observation is that, after Toya Holness left last December, this guys is trying to play nice with some of H&M’s ardent haters, by feeding those three guys exclusives/quote, off the general practice of releasing press statements at times.
I wonder what he’s up to. I wonder if Prince Harry is oké with this strategy, because of the upcoming Invictus UK events, but Meghan is not aware of it? Because, I can’t believe that, if Meghan knows how these guys are deliberately misreporting and defaming her, she’s would be oké that they are being fed quates, etc, nonetheless. I just don’t get it.
People thing that the two sturdy statement that were released earlier this year by team H&M, came from Maguire – not. He is not that direct. Actually, those statements came from US-based Sunshine Sachs Morgan & Lyls (SSML), Meghan’s old PR firm, which they (H&M) rehired since January 2026. They are guiding Maguire and the rest of their Comms team, and are overlooking ALL H&M PR activities. I thing they step (stepped) in when Maguire is/was lacking to respond adequately when needed. And rightly so.
* being fed quotes …